Mexico Show cave
Cave of Swallows
21 °C inside, all year.
Dave Bunnell · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 846 m.
The real relief above Cave of Swallows, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
846m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
21°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
460m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
21 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 21 °C here, in January and in August. In May the afternoon reaches 32 °C at the entrance, 11 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from March to August. The wettest months are from June to October: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 22°10°Jan
- 25°11°Feb
- 29°14°Mar
- 32°17°Apr
- 32°18°May
- 30°19°Jun
- 28°19°Jul
- 28°19°Aug
- 27°18°Sep
- 25°16°Oct
- 23°13°Nov
- 22°10°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in Mexico
Cave of Swallows is a show cave in Mexico. The entrance is at 846 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Tamápatznearest town · 4.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 380 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- General Francisco Javier Mina International Airport (TAM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 149 km in a straight lineCar hire at TAM airport (Ciudad Madero)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmSótano de las Golondrinas
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 2campsites within 8 kmZona de Camping
- 2hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHotel Estrella Huasteca, Hotel Hacienda Huasteca
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Tamápatz4.3 km in a straight line
- Aquismón8.5 km in a straight line
- Tampate8.6 km in a straight line
- Tanute8.6 km in a straight line
- Tamcuime9.1 km in a straight line
- Tampemoche10 km in a straight line
- Tandzumadz13 km in a straight line
- Tancanhuitz14 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cave of Swallows.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas21 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 22 | 25 | 29 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 22 |
| Afternoon | 22 | 25 | 29 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 22 |
| Night | 10 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 25 | 21 | 28 | 36 | 67 | 142 | 166 | 134 | 222 | 126 | 40 | 18 |
| Rainy days | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 4 |
| Sun hours/day | 6.2 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 8.0 | 6.3 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 22 | 22 | 10 | 25 | 6.2 |
| Feb | 25 | 25 | 11 | 21 | 7.1 |
| Mar | 29 | 29 | 14 | 28 | 8.0 |
| Apr | 32 | 32 | 17 | 36 | 8.5 |
| May | 32 | 32 | 18 | 67 | 8.3 |
| Jun | 30 | 30 | 19 | 142 | 8.2 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 19 | 166 | 7.7 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 19 | 134 | 8.0 |
| Sep | 27 | 27 | 18 | 222 | 6.3 |
| Oct | 25 | 25 | 16 | 126 | 6.6 |
| Nov | 23 | 23 | 13 | 40 | 6.4 |
| Dec | 22 | 22 | 10 | 18 | 6.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (846 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 316% | 56% | 39% | 188% | 162% | 62% | 43% | 87% | 85% | 39% | 99% | 9% |
| 2021 | 75% | 75% | 78% | 98% | 110% | 150% | 73% | 125% | 62% | 86% | 84% | 61% |
| 2022 | 100% | 142% | 15% | 154% | 13% | 108% | 33% | 54% | 134% | 40% | 162% | 168% |
| 2023 | 36% | 78% | 105% | 291% | 96% | 12% | 35% | 53% | 7% | 103% | 117% | 315% |
| 2024 | 61% | 71% | 35% | 70% | 8% | 208% | 192% | 46% | 56% | 48% | 32% | 340% |
| 2025 | 72% | 61% | 8% | 7% | 102% | 256% | 87% | 56% | 99% | 138% | 87% | 249% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Cave of Swallows
Mexico
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 846 mEntrance altitude
- 21 °CInside, all year
Grutas Xoxafi
Mexico · 135 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,229 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1688770) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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